Hershey's Layoffs

Is Hershey's shutting down its U.S. operations and moving to Mexico?

Claim: Hershey's is shutting down its U.S. operations and moving to Mexico.

Status:Partly true.

Example:[Collected July 2007]

Pennsylvania is a big state, but it amazes me in this day, how some news doesn't make it over the mountain to the front page of our papers or the top of our news hours in Western Pennsylvania.

Some of you may not know that Vicki's dad makes Hershey's Kisses for a living, so this hits home for us. Milton Hershey, this year, will be joining H.J. Heinz in rolling over in his grave. Hershey Chocolate is moving to Mexico...whoopee! They're even closing down Hershey Canada.

Don't buy any more Hercia Bars. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are my favorite and they are made by Hershey. But, I will not purchase another one!

M.S. Hershey had a dream... I will buy my OWN Sugar, Milk, Cocoa beans, (all natural mind you!) and make candy... (no tariffs etc..) EVEN during the depression... HE and the Company made money!.... NOW some Corporate big wigs are ruining the name... AND the product M.S. created... Please pass it on... What a bunch of college educated 'idiots'.

Thank you M.S. for all the things I have and all you have done for me and my family... 'I' do appreciate it... as for 'Dick' Lenny and Company... good luck you greedy, money loving mongrels... you are ruining the name, the company, and MANY lives in central Pennsylvania.... read on...

Enough is Enough!

So Hershey executives are closing plants in the US, laying off over a thousand people, and destroying Mr. Hershey's dream, all to cut labor and material costs.

The company will save about $170 million a year, all on the backs of the American people. The top executives will still make their mega bucks and the laid off workers will have to find other jobs, some probably at minimum wage due to their age. All this to take their jobs to India, China and Mexico. So WHAT part of the 'GREAT' American Chocolate Bar is left?...NOTHING! These countries are no doubt laughing at the Americans, who they don't like anyway. How long are the American people going to sit around and let big corporations do this to us? We must all band together and let them know we won't take it any longer!

Please, do not buy any Hershey product! I pulled EVERY dime of my stock, retirement and my HEART out of Hershey... (it does hurt me to say that). If the company wants to take the work to these countries, then let those countries buy the product. We don't need it!

BLACKBALL HERSHEY!!

Please pass this to everyone on your email list so it gets all across the United States.

Origins: The Hershey Company (or Hershey's, as even it calls itself) is the largest North American chocolate maker. The company has annual revenues of nearly $5 billion and employs more than 13,000 people worldwide.

The business was founded by Milton S. Hershey in the 1880s as the Lancaster Caramel Company. Its chocolate-making operations were added in 1893 when the candymaker thought to enrobe some of his caramels in chocolate. Soon the consumer interest in just chocolate itself became apparent to this

savvy businessman, and he formed the Hershey Chocolate Company to service that market. Interest in Hershey's chocolate offerings did nothing but grow as the candymaker mastered the secret of producing milk chocolate, and in 1900 Hershey sold off his caramel company for the then-princely sum of $1 million.

Milton Hershey was not your typical corporate tycoon — unlike others who exploited their workers to produce the largest possible profit, he worked to better the lives of those he employed. He built them a town (named Hershey, of course), and furnished it with schools, churches, banks, and stores. He also established the Hershey Industrial School (now the Milton Hershey School), then a training center for orphaned boys but now open to both genders.

Milton Hershey died in 1945, but his town of Hershey lives on, as does his chocolate-making empire.

In February 2007, Hershey's announced it would be cutting more than ten percent of its workforce and closing some of its U.S. plants. It expects to do away with about 1,500 jobs over the next three years from its current workforce of more than 13,000 and also plans to reduce the number of manufacturing lines it operates by almost a third. The company is building a new facility in Monterrey, Mexico, that it says will be focused on both low-value added products and on emerging markets, and it is setting up a joint manufacturing venture in China with Lotte Confectionery of South Korea.

Hershey's Canadian operations are almost ended; by December 2007 the company will no longer have facilities in Canada. Other plant closures include facilities in Oakdale, California; Naugatuck, Connecticut; and Reading, Pennsylvania.

However, despite the e-mail's message that Hershey's is ending its U.S. operations, it should be kept in mind that while 3,000 of Hershey's U.S. workforce was (or will be) laid off, the rest of its American employees continue to work for the company, and Hershey's plants in the U.S. continue to make chocolate.

Boycott the chocolate maker's products if you feel it's the right thing to do, but if you do, do so on the basis of protesting a cut in Hershey's U.S. workforce, not because you think the company has ceased its American operations and shut down all its U.S. plants.

David Mikkelson founded snopes.com in 1994, and under his guidance the company has pioneered a number of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone, the light bulb, beer pong, and a vaccine for a disease that has not yet been discovered. He is currently seeking political asylum in the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

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